Nettops haven't seen the same level of publicity heaped upon netbooks. This is largely due to the fact that, when stripped down, most nettops literally are netbooks in disguise. Only dual-core Atom processors have really provided any meaningful differentiation between the two, but what we and others have been holding out for was nVidia's much vaunted ION platform. And now we have what we wanted in the form of the first ION powered nettop, the Acer Aspire Revo.

Ever since its official launch, NVIDIA's ION platform has created quite a stir in the computer industry, leading to all sorts of interesting debates on the Internet, as well as quite a lot of bad blood between NVIDIA and Intel. And now, confirming some rumors and pieces of news that have been around for quite a long time (ever since CeBIT, to be precise, when we first heard a little something on the subject), Acer decided to be the first to roll out an ION-based product. And it wasn't the Hornet system everyone had been waiting for, but the AspireRevo nettop, a device whose form factor and features look very similar to the first ION prototypes we saw live.